Asked about advice the 42-year-old veteran gave to the team’s younger players, Recchi said: “This is a great time of year right now. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Don’t let the pressure grab you. If you do that, you’re going to really have a good time with this and we’re going to be a better team for it.”

The Flyers have been trying to get under the Bruins’ skin in the first two games, but Recchi said all they’ve done is “wake the sleeping giant.” Said Recchi: “When we get involved in these games, we seem to really get the emotion and are able to play a better hockey game.”

Recchi said the key reason for the Bruins’ late-season turnaround was the team sticking together. “We believed in ourselves in the dressing room, and what we were trying to do,” he said. “We knew we weren’t consistent, so we really didn’t give [the fans] a lot of reasons to believe in us. But at the same time, we knew that if we found that consistency and that competitive edge every night, then we would be a team that’s very tough to play against. We found it at the right time. With all the injuries and everything we’ve been through, we really stuck together as a group. Through all the doubters and the naysayers, we hung in there together. We didn’t push apart. We actually grew together as a team more than anything.”

Recchi said he never lost faith in his team. “When you believe in the guys sitting beside you, in the dressing room, that never crosses your mind. My biggest thing was I knew we had it in us, because we could control games and dominate games, but then we just couldn’t find that consistency. And I knew it was there. We did it the year before.”

Recchi was asked which players are the best and funniest trash-talkers. “Shawn Thornton[3], he’s really protective of his players, his teammates,” Recchi said. “Our coach behind the bench is probably one of them, too. It’s pretty funny.” Asked about Flyers instigator Daniel Carcillo, Recchi said: “He’s actually not funny at all. There’s nothing funny to his repertoire at all.”